In various technical arts and commercial endeavors, it has been found necessary to apply information bearing labels to numerous articles. To accomplish this tedious task, the prior art has developed automatic article labeling apparatus, thus permitting human skill and capabilities to be directed toward more useful and satisfying pursuits while highly accurate and efficient operation may be obtained from machines. A successful utilization of automatic article labeling apparatus has been achieved in bulk mailing applications. Where information material, such as promotional brochures, advertising circulars, subscriptive material or the like, are prepared for mass distribution, it is highly advantageous to prepare address labels bearing information regarding the respective recipients of such material and to then apply each such label to a corresponding article. The thus addressed article is conditioned to be effectively mailed to the indicated recipient.
In preparation of articles for bulk mailing, it is often desired to classify the addressed material according to predetermined categories. For example, where general information material is to be distributed to all recipients but specific information is to be added and distributed to a special category of recipient, it might be necessary to characterize the material addressed to such categorized recipient so that the additional information may be provided. Hence, if documents are automatically deposited in envelopes and each envelope is subsequently supplied with an address label bearing information regarding the particular recipient of such envelope, it might be preferred to identify those envelopes addressed to, for example, doctors to thereby permit further documents to be deposited therein. When the last envelope addressed to a generalized recipient is processed a particular operation may be executed to segregate the envelopes addressed to the generalized recipients from the subsequent envelopes addressed to the specialized recipients, i.e., the doctors. Such operation may comprise the introduction of a predetermined machine operation delay to thereby provide a substantial dimensional hiatus between the envelopes addressed to the generalized recipients and those envelopes addressed to the specialized recipients to enable an operator to recognize the latter envelopes and to deposit the particular inserts therein. Alternatively, the initial envelope addressed to the specialized recipients may be skewed or particularly marked to thus characterize such envelope. In this manner, an operator may readily recognize the specialized envelopes, thereby facilitating the addition of particular inserts thereto.
Various other classification of recipient may be employed to effect the initiation of a predetermined operation. For example, such operation may be initiated upon detecting the presence of the last envelope included in a post office zip code group. It has been found that, in most instances wherein a predetermined operation is to be executed, such operation being dependent upon the particular classification of recipients employed, the information regarding such classification may generally be borne by the address label itself. Hence, in accordance with the foregoing examples, the title of a doctor will normally appear on the face of the address label. Similarly, the post office zip code associated with the recipient to which the address label is addressed will appear on the face of the label.
The prior art has developed techniques for initiating a predetermined operation upon detecting predetermined labels that manifest the desired classifications. For example, a mailing piece separator has been proposed wherein the first mailing piece directed to an address in a given geographic area is skewed with respect to the remaining mailing pieces. An operator may then recognize when mailing pieces for such different geographic areas have been processed by the labeling apparatus and can, accordingly, separate such mailing pieces into appropriate individual bundles suitable for proper distribution. This prior art technique requires that a predetermined label be provided with appropriate markings thereon representing said given geographic area such that the marked label and associated mailing piece may be detected. Unfortunately, it has been found that this technique requires the printing of address labels with a degree of care not necessarily required for most bulk mailing operations to insure the proper marks thereon. Furthermore, mark sensing means must be disposed in the processing path of the labels, which sensing means are usually disposed immediately prior to the label applying station, thus occupying much needed space at a critical point in the processing path. Additionally, such sense marks that must be provided on the faces of the labels themselves might detract from a preferred appearance of the labels and, moreover, comprise a permanent part of the address label. Typical apparatus employing the concepts of this technique are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,211 issued to H. V. Kirk et al.
An alternative proposal for an automatic article labeling system contemplates the use of a general purpose digital computer to produce appropriate address labels. As is recognized by those familiar with the computer art, a compilation of recipients and their addresses may be readily stored and revised by a digital computer. Such information may be easily retreived and reproduced as actual address labels in the form of a conventional computer print-out. It has been found that, in addition to printing the appropriate address labels, the computer may be advantageously employed to provide control data to enable a selective sorting of labeled articles in accordance with a particular program or labeling scheme. This technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,319 issued to John W. McGuire and assigned to Xerox Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. In this patented system, the control data is provided as sense marks in a disposable column attached to the computer print-out sheet of address labels. The printed labels are disposed in a plurality of rows and columns, at least one row of which is associated with control data located in the disposable column. The control data is capable of initiating a separation of labeled articles in accordance with the post office zip code number included in the address. Additionally, the control data is capable of initiating an article processing operation whereby one or more articles are not supplied with associated address labels. Furthermore, the control data is capable of controlling an article "skip" procedure such that "skipped" labels are not applied to articles but are stored for future use. More particularly, the disposable column is divided into a plurality of columns and rows. The presence of a sense mark in a particular column determines the particular function to be executed. For example, if a sense mark is disposed in a first column, a "zip sort" function is performed wherein labeled articles are separated in accordance with their post office zip code numbers. The location of a sense mark in a second column permits a "label skip" operation to be performed wherein a number of articles are processed without applying labels thereto. A sense mark disposed in a third column enables the performance of an "article skip" operation whereby a number of labels are stored for future use without being applied to associated articles. The control data positioned in the disposable column are further divided into a plurality of rows equal in number to the number of labels located in a given row of labels. In this manner, the function specified by the particular column in which a sense mark is disposed is performed upon that label represented by the particular row in which the sense mark is located. For example, a sense mark positioned in column one, row one, represents that the first label in an associated row of labels is the last label in a zip code group and, therefore, that an article separation operation is to be performed. Hence, after that first label is applied to an article, operation of the article labeling machine is interrupted for a determined time interval. Upon resuming operation, a suitable separation is provided between zip code groups. As another example, a sense mark located in the second column, second row represents that the second label in an associated row of labels is to be the last label affixed to a group of articles. Consequently, upon applying the second label in that row of labels to an article, a preset number of articles are subsequently processed but not labeled. As a further example, a sense mark located in the third column, third row represents that the third label located in an associated row of labels is the last label to be applied to a group of articles and subsequent labels are to be merely stored for future use. Hence, when the third label in that row of labels is affixed to an article, a preset number of labels are processed but not applied to articles.
Although the aforedescribed article labeling apparatus advantageously permits the execution of predetermined operations upon labeled articles in accordance with a predetermined program that also functions to control a digital computer, it has been found that this technique is, for many applications, unduly inflexible. More particularly, the control data disposed in the disposable column and, therefore, the predetermined machine operations associated therewith, bear no relation to the actual information borne by each address label. The position of a label in a row of labels may be identified but there is no capability of identifying the useful information borne thereby. Thus, if it is desired to perform a predetermined machine operation upon dectecting various classifications of labels, it is necessary to revise the computer program which serves to print the label form and associated disposable column. This obtains because there is no provision for distinguishing between label classifications. In the patented apparatus, a predetermined machine operation will be executed, for example, upon detecting control data in a first data column associated with a row of labels. This operation will be performed whenever control data is positioned in said column. An operator cannot selectively initiate such machine operation in accordance with the useful information borne by the labels. It is merely the presence of control data in that first column that determines the initiation of machine operation.
In many applications, it is preferable to permit an operator to automatically enable the initiation of a machine operation upon detecting certain labels bearing predetermined information. For example, in bulk mailing operations it might be desirable to segregate labeled articles in accordance with post office zip code numbers. Similarly, such segregation might be desired in accordance with various characteristics of the recipient of the addressed article. For example, a predetermined operation may be executed upon articles having labels addressed to doctors. As a further example, a particular operation may be performed upon articles bearing labels to subscribing recipients whose subscription may be expiring. Unfortunately, an operator of the apparatus described by the McGuire patent is not provided with the capability of performing such operations on selected labels in accordance with the actual information borne thereby, i.e., on some of the labeled articles but not all. Accordingly, a need has arisen for identifying the useful information borne by labels as well as the unique location of particular ones of said identified labels. By providing such information identification, the aforementioned machine operations may be performed in accordance with post office zip code numbers, for example, in one instance and in accordance with characteristics of the recipients of the labeled articles in another instance without requiring a complete revision in the program of the computer that controls the compilation and printing of such labels.